It rained that Sunday
like riot in the streets
after midnight.
It was hellish,
but still I wrote you love letters,
drowning—
sewing up problems
I didn’t yet know I had
into poems.
They were numbered
and in-
famous.
Remember how
you tore them with your teeth,
like cotton candy,
melting
the sugar of me
funneling the storm drain?
Sundays are better now,
but December rain
is a trance
between fall
and spring—
the stuff of smoke and legend
like books burning
with enormous heat,
as a poet girl dishes—
not instantly,
but fat and sizzling—
crammed
frozen into blue
Rorschach inkblots
on winter’s lonely, cutting, bony page.
Shay's Word Garden Word List: The Prodigy
My first attempt at using all the given words, with a couple variants.
You set the stage quite brilliantly with stanza #1 for the poetry that followed!! Brava.
ReplyDeleteWOW! This is a stellar poem. So well done, and all the words......loved it.
ReplyDeleteThat last like especially, Jen, but all of it.
ReplyDeleteMelts on the tongue bittersweet and rare. Gorgeous work .
ReplyDeleteA poem full of power, remorse and acceptance but also one that leaves a bittersweet taste in lines like this.."Remember how/you tore them with your teeth,/like cotton candy.." a very vivid and effective metaphor.
ReplyDelete"Remember how
ReplyDeleteyou tore them with your teeth,
like cotton candy,
melting
the sugar of me
funneling the storm drain?"
Those are truly amazing lines. I love the way you used all the words, connected your thoughts in such a creative way!
Again you so powerfully pack a punch with brevity Jennifer. So many wonderful images and feelings to savor here. Beautiful writing indeed!!
ReplyDeleteThe hardest trick in using all the words is to keep them from sounding wedged in. You've done a marvelous job of making the whole thing flow and keeping it all cogent--no mean feat. This poem is simply soaked with atmosphere.
ReplyDeleteAmazing poetry, raw and edgy. What a read!
ReplyDelete"sewing up problems I didn’t yet know I had into poems." Oh I love that line. Love this poem!!
ReplyDeleteI love all the contrast of images in this poem, from calm to riotous, culminating in the stunning final stanza.
ReplyDelete